On this day, 16 August 1972, women cleaners at the Ministry of Defence in London won a strike which began in July for a payrise and union recognition, in what would become a watershed moment in the “Night Cleaners Campaign”.
The mostly Caribbean and Irish cleaners were supported by the women’s movement, who jointly set up picket lines 24 hours a day, as well as by other workers. May Hobbs, one of the strikers, recalled in her autobiography, Born to Struggle: “[post office] engineers stopped servicing their telephones, the dustmen left their bins full, no mail went in and there were no deliveries of bread, milk or beer to the canteen.”
The workers won an increase in basic pay of over 30%, to £6.50 per week, plus a 50p night allowance, as well as an agreement of no victimisation for participants in the strike.
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